Rate of human-wildlife conflict in India has researchers making urgent appeals for solutions

Researchers in India are calling for measures to improve human-wildlife conflict management across the country after a study revealed the frequency with which clashes between animals and people are resulting in property damage, injury, and even death. Human-wildlife conflicts are typically the result of growing human populations encroaching ever-further into established wildlife territory. Once they find themselves competing directly with humans for dwindling resources, wild animals are known to raid the crop fields or livestock pens kept by humans, resulting in confrontations that can have severe negative consequences for people and animals alike. Between 2011 and 2014, Dr. Krithi Karanth, a conservation scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, and Sahila Kudalkar, a research associate with the Centre for Wildlife Studies, surveyed 5,196 families from 2,855 villa...